Northern bettong

Bettongia tropica

Blamed on cats

IUCN status: Endangered

EPBC Predator Threat Rating: Not assessed

IUCN claim: “The main threats tot his species are: Predation by feral cats (moderate to severe): feral Cats shown to be a significant predator of the closely-related Woylie in south-western Australia”

Studies in support

Bettongs were last recorded at Goodooga, NSW, 34-54 years after cats arrived (Current submission).

Studies not in support

No studies

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

There are no studies evidencing a link between cats and the extinction of northern bettongs.

Evidence linking Bettongia tropica to cats. A. Systematic review of evidence for an association between Bettongia tropica and cats. Positive studies are in support of the hypothesis that cats contribute to the decline of Bettongia tropica, negative studies are not in support. Predation studies include studies documenting hunting or scavenging; baiting studies are associations between poison baiting and threatened mammal abundance where information on predator abundance is not provided; population studies are associations between threatened mammal and predator abundance. B. Last records of extirpated populations relative to earliest local records of cats. Error bars show record uncertainty range. Predator arrival records were digitized from Abbott 2008. See methods section in [current submission] for details on evidence categories.

References

Abbott, The spread of the cat, Felis catus, in Australia: re-examination of the current conceptual model with additional information. Conservation Science Western Australia 7 (2008).

Current submission (2023) Scant evidence that introduced predators cause extinctions.

IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023